- New partnership will allow WorldRemit platform to be used to send cash to Alipay customers
- It is expected that those excluded from banking will be able to benefit from the service, and migrant workers are especially due to benefit from the move
- “Our vision is to build a mobile-first, international payments service and we’re excited to work with Alipay as a partner”, said a WorldRemit spokesperson
Leading online money transfer firm WorldRemit has announced that it will work alongside Alipay, a China-based payments and lifestyle service.
As part of the collaboration, customers of Alipay will be able to use either the WorldRemit website or mobile application to perform online money transfers to people with an Alipay app.
This will have a knock-on effect on efficiency and convenience and is likely to make it easier for those who are “unbanked” to get access to remittance services.
It is also expected that migrant workers will benefit from the move too.
According to Tamer El-Emary, who is the chief commercial officer at WorldRemit, “speed to market” and “innovation” are key parts of the project.
“Our vision is to build a mobile-first, international payments service and we’re excited to work with Alipay as a partner”, he said.
“The partnership will focus on innovation, customer experience and speed to market”, he added.
On Alipay’s part, the firm’s head of global remittances – Ma Zhiguo – said that the new service would be “secure and cost effective”, among other things.
“We look forward to working with WorldRemit to build a remittance service that is fast, secure, and cost effective”, Zhiguo said.
“The unique mobile to mobile payment experience that this partnership delivers allows us to provide a convenient money transfer service to Alipay customers.”
WorldRemit is a key player on the international money transfer scene.
It offers sending services to customers in 50 nations around the world, and its cashless transfers can be received in 150 countries.
It has a staff team of more than 800, and it works in nearly 7,000 “money transfer corridors” across the globe.
The London-based firm has been backed by a range of funders, including TCV and Leapfrog.
Alipay is in many ways the holy grail for companies such as WorldRemit, as it is Alipay which has that crucial way into the Chinese market.
Alipay has seen Chinese user bases of around 700m per month in recent years, and despite China’s star faltering somewhat recently due to the outbreak of a virus and a clash with the US over trade, there is still a sense among global investors that this economic giant is here to stay.
By tapping into the big base of consumers which exists in this market, WorldRemit has revealed a tendency to make smart, future-proofed decisions which will no doubt come back to benefit it in the long run.
To learn more about what interesting organisations like WorldRemit and Alipay are up to in the remittances sector, just head over to our news pages.
